COLD HARD SCIENCE.The Physics of Skating on Ice (With SlowMo) - Smarter Every Day 110

Hey it's me Destin. Welcome back to Smarter Every Day. So in the olympics the most athletic team

always wins right? No. It's actually more complicated than that because

there's physical objects in the olympics. Now the team that is able to manipulate

these physical objects better than the other team usually wins.

For example, curling. This curling stone is very heavy, and if you can figure out how to

manipulate it across the ice better than the other team you will win.

So physics is a huge deal and a knowledge of physics is very important.

So today on Smarter Every Day we're gonna start a three part series on equipment used

in the olympics and how it interacts with the world around it. Today we're gonna focus

on ice skates. There are three major types of ice skates used in the olympics.

The figure skate, the hockey skate and the speed skate.

This is my new friend Glenn. He's a figure skating coach.

It's really awesome. [laugh] So everyone already knows that angular momentum trick right?

So large moment of intertia, bringing it in.

Small moment of intertia. That's pretty awesome. So show me your skates.

What makes you be able to do that? Cause I mean, I would mess up

because of the toe pick, so where are you actually rotating? (Glenn) I'm actually spinning backwards.

My blade is spinning backwards, and I'm spinning on a small area

we call the ball of the foot. Also my bottom toe pick is touching

the ice. So it's allowing me to put forward pressure down

without sliding forward like I would on a hockey skate. (Destin) So that's how you're able to keep from

falling backwards? - Right. - Yeah I'm not really getting it. He's saying he's rotating about this point

but he's dragging that toe pick. Clearly this is a good excuse to break out the Phantom.

Alright.

OK now this is making sense. You see I used to think that they pivoted on

one spot under the ball of the foot. Looks like I was wrong. They're actually

skating backwards and he's dragging that toe pick to maintain his balance.

That's pretty cool. Alright, it's time to move onto jumps. OK Glenn's gonna show

us three of the main jumps in figure skating. Here's the waltz jump,